Hey guys I’ve got a ‘63 impala w/o power steering. I would love to have power steering but was debating on how hard and expensive it would be. I came across people using electric power steering from a Prius it’s supposed to be cheaper. Anyone tried to do this on their cl***ic?
It’s the off topic forum so I guess it’s ok. I looked briefly into that some years ago. Most of the info was on Jeep forums and used Toyota pieces. A lot had to do with being able to modify the electrics to dial the ***ist up and down. Going from highway to rock crawling. The Ford forums have some guys who used that on mid 50’s ford, Saturn junkyard parts as I recall. But for a 63 chev I’d be looking at Borgensen. They’ve got a box, close to bolt in, Saginaw pump. From manual or replaces the oem ram system. Let’s you keep the column intact if it’s a column shift. Straightforward and simple. I know cheap is sometimes attractive, but if you’ve got to hire the machine work out it get expensive quick. Read the fine print in pprather’s post above, and look at the u joints in the new steering column. And if the Impala is a nice car, the next owner might not be willing to pay for it.
There is a TON of work into going this route versus upgrading the manual box to a power unit such as a Borgeson box. For starters, the stock column is going to need to be modified (shortened) so that the electric power unit can be mounted inline under the dash. Second, that power unit needs to be securely mounted in place under the dash, which will require some serious fabrication. Support to the upper and lower section of steering column/shaft will also need to be fabricated. The ECU needs to mounted somewhere and a separate circuit from the battery is required. The last one I wired required a 40A feed so no small request. I'd rather modify a stock column to accept a rag joint and bolt in a power box, lines, and a pump, but that's just me. These electric units are catching on and the ability to adjust the sensitivity on the fly is pretty cool (but it requires a wheel speed sensor, so more work). But make no mistake, they aren't any easier, in my opinion. For those applications where a drop-in power box isn't available, this option might be a great solution however.
I've never used one or driven a conversion car having it but I've had 2 different guys come into the shop in the last couple years stating they had used them, one on a fibergl*** 32 coupe, the other one I don't remember but it was an old hot rod. Both were gm under dash units and both loved them. Both also had them adjustable. They liked the feel and the fact that it worked with about any steering gear set up and the fact you couldn't "see" the power units still giving the impression of old school steering along with easier steering set-up for the smaller steering boxes around headers etc. Neither guy knew the other which I thought was funny as they came into the shop within 2 weeks of each other, and both had their cars on the road for over 6 months with the conversion.... ...
I've never considered using the electric PS like in the Prius, though my O/T daily driver Ford Escape uses a similar set up. I have however considered using hydraulic electric power steering like on the early 2000s Volvos. This would utilize a more standard power steering box, fed by an electric pump rather than a belt driven pump. I always felt this would be a solution where you want to maintain your PS, but want to clean up the belt drive and take a belt driven pump off there.
Take a look at this thread by Bandit Billy: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/powerfully-off-topic-power-steering.1317525/
Just going to expand on my previous post. I have seen the under-dash EPS set ups like were posted above here and in the thread linked. I don't doubt their effectiveness for one second, and as I mentioned above, has been reliable and effective in my OT 2008 Escape for hundreds of thousands of miles. The thing for me personally though is that I can't get over the look of the motor under the column, which is still visible in the car. Try to hide it as you may, it's still there. On the other hand, for those of us running cars with fenders, or using a steering gear where there is a hydraulic power option, my choice would be to convert to a Volvo hydraulic electric pump. These were used in a variety of models from around 2005 through 2013, are readily available, and are inexpensive to acquire and install. Unlike the EPS system above, this requires no modification to the column whatsoever, and merely requires the use of a regular power steering gear like may have come from the factory, or could be acquired through Borgeson or other suppliers. Hell, there is even a power Vega cross steer box for the hot rod guys. The video below gives an excellent tutorial on the parts used, installation requirements, and the set up. For those of you who want to make your own PS lines, it's really not that hard. A basic PTFE line kit like you can grab off of Amazon or Jeg's and you can whip up you own lines at home with no specialized tools. This is the path I went with my Olds even though I used a standard Saginaw pump. A couple YouTube videos and I was off to the races. As for the pump, my father in law and I used the Volvo set up on his Ford Ranger race truck we campaigned in the 24 Hours of Lemons. After a belt drive failure put us on the trailer one race, we decided to get back to basics and eliminate failure points, going back to V belts and a single alternator. The Volvo PS pump worked great and was easy to install.
https://www.mgexp.com/forum/mgb-and-gt-forum.1/eps-from-prius-into-an-mg.4182769/ The MGB guys are doing it too.
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